One of the modern trends in telephone instrument development is towards smaller instruments, and to instruments the weight of which is less than that of conventional telephone instruments. This has introduced the difficulty that the relatively light handset now used may have difficulty in operating the hook-switch arrangements. The present invention seeks to provide a telephone instrument in which such difficulties are minimized or even overcome.
In one aspect the invention provides a telephone subscriber's instrument, which has an instrument body with a recess of generally rectangular cross-section in the instrument body, which recess extends along a side of said instrument body, and a handset a substantial part of the length of which is of generally rectangular cross-section so proportioned that the handset fits smoothly into the recess.
Such an instrument enables a hook-switch operating arrangement to be provided which extends into the recess in such a way as to be readily operable when the handset is fitted into the recess, this being the condition which corresponds to the so-called on-hook condition.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a telephone subscriber's instrument, which includes an instrument body with a recess of generally rectangular cross-section in the instrument body, a handset a substantial part of the length of which is of generally rectangular cross-section so proportioned that the handset fits smoothly into the recess, hook-switch contact means in the instrument body and adjacent to said recess, and a plunger associated with said hook-switch contact means such that when the handset is fitted into the recess the plunger is caused to move the contact means from the off hook to the on hook condition and that when the handset is removed from the recess the plunger is caused to move the contact means from the on hook to the off hook condition.